Both Sunak and Starmer have been accused of breaking climate pledges, referring to the Conservative’s weak policies and Labour’s U-turn on its £28 billion pledge. Sunak said that he would stick to his current targets “in a way that saves you all money” and the ‘introduce an energy efficiency voucher scheme open to every UK household’ while Starmer advocates a fix with homeowners changing their leaky homes introducing insulation, solar panels and heat pumps to save on energy bills. With these energy efficient upgrades to homes needing investment, who will foot the bill?
Both Sunak and Starmer have been accused of breaking climate pledges, referring to the Conservative’s weak policies and Labour’s U-turn on its £28 billion pledge. Sunak said that he would stick to his current targets “in a way that saves you all money” and the ‘introduce an energy efficiency voucher scheme open to every UK household’ while Starmer advocates a fix with homeowners changing their leaky homes introducing insulation, solar panels and heat pumps to save on energy bills. With these energy efficient upgrades to homes needing investment, who will foot the bill?
The Greens will be taxing Britain's wealthiest in a bid to tackle the home insulation crisis. - how will they prevent another insulation boom which caused so many people pain and botched jobs?
2023 was the hottest year on record, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) declared. The global average temperature was 1.45 degrees Celsius hotter than pre-industrial times in 2023, drawing perilously close to 1.5C - a critical threshold agreed by world leaders. Scientists have warned that 2024 is shaping up to be another record-breaking year of high temperatures.
Properly insulating the UK’s 29 million homes would push down the nationwide demand for energy and cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Well-insulated properties would also be better prepared for a future of more frequent and intense heat waves.
Fixing Britain’s draughty homes could add almost £40bn to the economy by the end of the decade by cutting energy use and improving health, yet it remains low on the list of priorities for our future government with the exception of The Green’s. They have declared they would tax the wealthiest to help fund a £30bn pledge to help fix the insulation problem.
One company on a mission to decarbonise 1 million homes by 2030 says that the Conservative’s manifesto launched today lacks information on solving this problem and with another energy efficiency voucher scheme on the cards from Sunak, there is zero commitment on how they will ensure deployment happens quickly and with quality.
Becky Lane, 30, is the co-owner of Furbnow, a retrofit start-up that helps homeowners reduce their carbon emissions. She said:
“To achieve the government’s net-zero goal, every home that’s over 30 years old in Britain will need a £30k energy efficient makeover. Something as simple as properly insulating the UK’s 29 million homes would push down the nationwide demand for energy and cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions."
“By giving every “leaky or poorly insulated home” an energy-efficient makeover, homeowners could stop their energy bills from going through the roof and it would contribute to the UK’s Net Zero target for 2050. However, with the average home needing around £30k of investment each, many homeowners may decide that improving insulation is not currently affordable."
After securing £1m in funding her company is aiming to decarbonise a million homes. Furbnow offers a service where your home can be assessed by a qualified surveyor to identify which areas of your home need upgrading and an action plan is provided with accredited suppliers and support throughout but Becky says a lot more needs to be done at a government level.
Becky continued: “At a time when energy costs are high and there is a clear climate emergency there is no better time for the government to invest in improving the energy efficiency of homes.
“And as temperatures increase in the summer months due to global warming we need houses that can stay cool too.
“Nearly half the emissions that cause climate change come from our offices, shops, schools and more critically from our homes.”
Becky says companies like Furbnow can be an influential solution to make retrofitting more accessible and affordable for households, hand holding homeowners through the journey but they need support.
While Sunak is sticking with the Conservatives original grant funding, £2.17bn of funds pledged by Parliament to make buildings energy efficient remains unspent.
Becky would like to see it distributed across the industry to spark meaningful change.
She added: “There is a lot of money available to improve homes that just isn’t being spent.
“But throwing money at the problem like the Greens have suggested is unlikely to yield the improvements needed.
“After the election the successive governments will need to invest in supply chain and training and skills to ensure they receive quality work for the money spent.
“Whether it's a new build or retrofit, the sector simply does not have the people. “Home upgrades are complex too. If the process of improving your home is too hard, it puts people off.”
In a policy report conducted in 2023 by which? only 4 in 10 (37%) of homeowners took the first step of looking for information about insulation in the last five years, and the majority (63%) of those looking ultimately chose not to proceed with any work. The result is that only 14% of households have made improvements to the insulation of their homes in the last five years.
Becky added: “Furbnow supports homeowners through the process but even if we put the building blocks in place we need more funding and clarity in policy from government to make sure we can deliver on our ambitions to decarbonise 1 million homes by 2030.”
She said: “Well-insulated properties would also be better prepared for a future of more frequent and intense heat waves.
“Fixing Britain’s draughty homes could add almost £40bn to the economy by the end of the decade by cutting energy use and improving health.
“The problems we always hear from our customers and reflected in research are lack of information, lack of funds for the project and lack of trust in the supply chain. We’re addressing these issues head on at Furbnow, making sure homeowners are armed with everything they need to start improving their homes' energy efficiency. Heat pumps will decarbonise heating but they won’t reduce bills and improve comfort and health at home and they come at a cost.”
Becky added: “The current Government has been dragging its feet on policy proposals to improve the energy efficiency rating of properties both for home owners and privately rented homes, including rolling back on their commitment to increase the minimum energy efficiency standard for privately rented homes.
“Britain has some of the oldest housing stock in Europe — it is leaky and inefficient, making buildings hot in the summer and cold in winter.
“Coupled with the statistics showing that 2023 was the hottest year on record according to the World Meteorological Organisation then we have a real problem. “Scientists have warned that 2024 is shaping up to be another record-breaking year of high temperatures. There has never been a better time to take action.”
For more information about the support available from Furbnow to improve the energy efficiency at home go to the website: Furbnow.com
